“How to Turn a Place Around” Long Beach, CA

“How to Turn a Place Around” Long Beach, CA
September 14 & 15, 2012
TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONALS & CITIZENS
“Placemaking” is an overarching idea and a hands-on
tool for improving a neighborhood, city, or region. It
has the potential to be one of the most transformative
ideas of this century.” - MPC, Chicago, IL
“How to Turn a Place Around”
introduces new ways of thinking about public
spaces and how Placemaking can be used to
bring communities together and revitalize
underperforming spaces. Participants will
explore the principles of making places
through presentations, case studies of public
space innovations, on- site evaluation and
interactive discussions of critical issues and
challenges. Discussion sessions will focus on
the particular issues of participants.
Topics include: why public multi-use destinations
are the best attractors of downtown activity;
using public markets as generators of local
economies; implementing an architecture
of place strategy and; building community
through transportation. Transportation issues
will be explored in a special “Streets as Places”
session which will focus on how to rebalance
the transportation system for people versus
vehicles. It will give participants insight into the
parameters and thought processes of decisionmakers who plan streets, and provide tools for
evaluating streets and working with designers.
Drawing on PPS’s work in cities across the globe,
this training course will provide case study
examples of successful solutions that unlock
both the social as well as economic potential
of public spaces.
Who: Everyone - professionals and non professionals
alike who help plan towns, cities and streets—from
landscape architects and real estate developers to
park managers and community activists
What: A two-day training seminar on public spaces,
transportation and Placemaking
Where: TBD, Long Beach CA
When: September 14 & 15, 2012
Why: We know from our work in more than 2,500
communities around the world that the Placemaking
approach is emerging as a revolutionary development
paradigm that reflects community history, needs,
and aspirations. Instead of focusing development on
shopping destinations like malls, strip centers and
lifestyle centers, Placemaking creates authentic, multiuse destinations that have the potential to define the
identity of cities and communities in the future.
How: Visit www.pps.org to register for the course.
For more information contact lmasseria@pps.org
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead
Specific Topics Will include:
Project for Public Spaces (PPS):
Training Course Host
Project for Public Spaces, Inc. is a non-profit technical
assistance, research, and educational organization.
We complement our project work, training, and
services with public space advocacy that sets the
stage for broad change. Our goal is to enhance
Placemaking efforts everywhere by promoting good
policy and professional practice.
Facilitators
Cynthia Nitkin: PPS Vice President has extensive
technical expertise in Placemaking as an integrated
approach to city planning and urban design;
Gary Toth: PPS Director of Transportation
Initiatives is an experienced leader with substantial
expertise in transportation planning, particularly
the integration of transportation with land use
planning and Context Sensitive Solutions; and
Kate Rube: PPS Transportation Program Manager is
an urban planner with expertise in smart growth,
active living, and transportation issues. She has
led many efforts to build coalitionsin order for
local organizations and governments to advance
sustainable community goals.
• Placemaking and the Power of 10 – How the
Placemaking Process is different from traditional
planning; how to use this process most
effectively; applying the Power of Ten in different
situations and scales of projects.
• Engaging the Community - How to most
effectively engage the community in the
planning process; what to avoid and what tools
to use
• Successfully
Implementing
Placemaking
Projects - Case studies from throughout the
world ranging from small scale interventions
to large scale public destinations with insights
into how they were achieved and why they are
successful.
• Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper – A low-cost, high
impact incremental framework for improving
your community in short order. It is a local
development strategy that has produced some
of the world’s most successful public spaces one that is lower risk and lower cost, capitalizing
on the creative energy of the community to
efficiently generate new uses and revenue for
places in transition.
• “Thinking Beyond the Station” – Promulgates
a philosophy and approach of “Community
Supportive Transit” to leverage transit facilities
and station areas, to add value to communities
via placemaking and capturing the value of
public transportation investments for local
communities
• Applying Streets as Places concepts –
Characteristics of Great Streets and how they
can address both transportation mobility and
community goals; fundamentals of street design
– principles (and jargon) behind street design;
tools for effectively negotiating for Place based
outcomes; and achieving better outcomes from
transportation professionals.